Qxygen transfer in gravity flow sewers

Oxygen diffused to water in gravity sewer pipes was studied in a 21 m long, 0.15 m diameter model sewer. At first, the sodium sulfide was added into the clean water to deoxygenate, then the pump was started to recirculate the water and the deoxygenated water was reaerated. The dissolved oxygen microelectrode was installed to measure the dissolved oxygen concentrations varied with flow velocity, time and depth. The dissolved oxygen concentration profiles were constructed and observed. The partial differential equation diffusion model that considered Fick's law including the molecular diffusion term and eddy diffusion term were derived. The analytic solution of the partial differential equation was used to determine the diffusivities by the method of nonlinear regression. The diffusivity values for the oxygen transfer was found to be a function of molecular diffusion, eddy diffusion and flow velocity.